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Saturday, October 30, 2010

John W Henry, principal owner of New England Sports Ventures, has joined Roy Hodgson in promising that Liverpool's star players will not be leaving. The Boston based tycoon maintained his intent was to strengthen not weaken the squad. Using the club's official website he labelled recent talk of Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina being lured from Anfield as "destructive and unwarranted". "We have recently read stories about our intentions for the forthcoming January transfer window and have a sense of humour about this type of inevitable speculation," Henry said. "As everyone knows we are new to English football, but not to sport, and we are studying all options. Opportunities and value will drive spending in January and in the future. "Our clear focus from day one of our ownership has been - and will be - to improve the club and focus on what it will take to put Liverpool FC consistently in a position to challenge for trophies. "We intend to build this club the right way. He added: "Stories about our top players leaving are destructive and unwarranted but we realise that this kind of speculation is also common. "We intend to build on the strength of the current squad, not undermine it. And I can reassure our supporters that we have no intention of allowing the team to be weakened going forward." Meanwhile Hodgson has stated that the Reds will only be looking to recruit top class players from now on in. However, despite the club being free of the debt George Gillett and Tom Hicks saddled Liverpool with they would only pay market value for players during the upcoming and any subsequent transfer windows. "We should not be shopping in the bargain basement and quality costs," the 63-year old said. "If we want the right quality, we have got to be prepared to pay the right price. The owners know that perfectly well. We have got to make certain that if we go out and spend £20m, we are getting a £20m player. "We want to be attracting the players that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter are chasing. It would be nice to think that we can shop at a high level. "I'm like all managers in that I'm wary of the January transfer window. I think it can be dangerous as clubs try to correct mistakes. "But, having said that, we are going to very interested about trying to improve our squad in January. "There is no question about that. I am sure we will sign players. What I would hope to do is get this group of players playing well enough so we don't need to panic. "Then I can say to the owners, if we are going to spend a lot of money let's get the right man. "I don't want to spend half the money that might be available on someone for the sake of buying when the player we actually want might not be available until the summer."